‘An Exceptionally Good Work of History’: Latest Reviews and News – 25 February 2018

Dear readers, I realise it has been a couple of months since I last placed a post on my website. Since the beginning of 2018, however, a lot of exciting news has accumulated, so please read on…

Moscow-based Azbooka is part of the Atticus Publishing Group

First, there is going to be a Russian language version of Sevastopol’s Wars. Moscow’s prestigious publisher Azbooka-Atticus, which specialises in foreign language editions, is already hard at work on the book. I am contributing a new Foreword and an updated Chapter 2, incorporating some new research material concerning the founder of Sevastopol, Rear Admiral Thomas Mackenzie.

I will also take the opportunity to make a few minor corrections and revisions, which will also be kept ready for any new English-language edition. In the meantime, a representative of Azbooka-Atticus kindly informed me:

We hope to do our best preparing a high quality Russian-language edition of your admirable book. We are very dedicated to this significant and important publishing project, so only the best translator and editors [are working] on it.

Secondly, a couple of very positive (5*) reviews of Sevastopol’s Wars have appeared on Amazon.com. The first declares:

Retired British Major General Mungo Melvin, author of a very well-received biography of Erich von Manstein, gives us a highly detailed study of a the very complex background to the present crisis over Crimea, the possession of which has historically been critical to the domination of the Black Sea.

This book review is in fact an excerpt of a much extensive one contained in the Strategy Page, which concludes:

Melvin very effectively explores the inter-linked economic, cultural, strategic, and political issues involved in the question of control of Crimea over several centuries. This is a complex study of a very complex problem.

The second recent Amazon.com review declares Sevastopol’s Wars to be ‘an exceptionally good work of history’, and notes:

Not only is it well written and accessible, but sources are thorougly documented and the book includes excellent maps and illustrations. Kudos to the author, whose outstanding research will benefit scholars and general audiences alike, and to Osprey Press. If you want to understand what’s happened in Crimea, this is the book to read.

With such positive reviews, both publisher and author can surely be well pleased.

Finally, you may wish to watch a video on YouTube of my talk at the Moffat Russian Conference last October about the 1905 mutinies of the Black Sea Fleet, in which I describe the events on the Russian battleship Potemkin and the armed cruiser Ochakov. For fuller details, read, of course, Sevastopol’s Wars.